British politicians would dramatically expand the U.K.’s powers of mass surveillance under a draft bill demanding that ISPs store records of every website visited by internet users for up to a year.
This level of online monitoring has been banned in the U.S., Canada and every other European nation, and has even previously been rejected in the U.K. Supporters of the legislation (known as the Investigatory Powers Bill) are presenting it and other security measures as a compromise, but privacy campaigners say it is in fact more intrusive.
Records of citizens’ Internet activity would only include the basic URL of websites they visit and not any specific pages. Searches made on sites would not be recorded, but the time of visits, as well as the IP addresses of other computers which the individual contacted, would.
Read the rest of this post on the original site »
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?
Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:
First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.
Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.
So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)
If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.
Yes, I'll give $5/month
Yes, I'll give $5/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and
Google Pay. You can also contribute via